The Western Bulldogs will be without captain Katie Brennan on Saturday night in Ballarat after last year's captain succumbed to a virus early in the week according the AFLW coach Paul Groves.
The Dogs travel to Mars Stadium in Ballarat on Saturday night to take on Carlton in the only pre-season hit out before the season proper opens on February 4 at VU Whitten Oval.
Groves, speaking to westernbulldogs.com.au on Friday, said that Brennan was keen to play but he’d prefer to take a cautious approach into a practice match.
“KB picked up a virus on Sunday so she’s been out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week and is pretty run down,” he said.
“She could have played but being a practice game I’m not going to take any risks with any of our players, it’s a general rule. So she’ll do a session beforehand on Saturday but will miss the match.”
Groves will also be without prolific mid-fielder Emma Kearney due to Big Bash commitments, as well as first round draft pick Monique Conti who’ll suit up for the Melbourne Boomers on Sunday night in the WNBL Grand Final Series.
But for the Dogs, Groves says the game will be less about the scoreboard, and more about fine tuning game style and providing opportunities for players to make their mark ahead of upcoming season.
“We’ll throw a lot of things around tomorrow night to see some girls in different positions. We’ve got a couple of girls playing their first game of footy in a long time, so [it’s about] getting them into the flow and making them feel part of the team.
“We’re really looking for our game style and how we go about playing it, so it’s a really exciting time.”
Saturday’s team will also include six players from the Bulldogs’ VFWL team, which Groves said will provide flexibility around the game time of the AFLW players, but also an opportunity for those players to stake their own claims ahead of the 2018 draft.
“We just want to make sure we can take some of our players off the ground if we need to, make sure we’ve got enough numbers and get through the entirety of the game,” he said.
“We are a little bit limited in numbers going into this practice match for a variety of reasons, but [it will] give those girls who are knocking on the door of being drafted in the next year some real exposure to it.”
